Apple iPad Pro M4 (2024) review

Apple’s iPad Professional M4 (2024) would possibly look like a spec bump, because the iPad Professional M2 (2022) was lots quick and succesful. Nonetheless, the brand new iPad Professional packs a slew of essential upgrades, and the blazing-fast M4 chip isn’t even on the prime of the listing.

A vibrant and vivid tandem-OLED show, 256GB of base storage, a horizontally-positioned front-facing digicam, and a thinner chassis all show to be extra impactful than the pace increase in each day use. 

The iPad Professional M4 continues to be costly, beginning at £999/$999 for the 11-inch mannequin and £1,299/$1,299 for the 13-inch variant. With that being stated, it’s truly a greater worth for UK consumers this time round. The 13-inch iPad Professional M4 prices simply £50 greater than the iPad Professional (2022) did at launch whereas providing double the storage. 

After months of utilizing the iPad Professional M4, I can safely say it’s the primary pill that may utterly exchange my Mac. On the flip aspect, needing to pay premium laptop computer costs for an iPad continues to be a troublesome promote — particularly when a last-generation iPad Professional would possibly do exactly nice.

Design & Construct

• The thinnest Apple product ever
• Digicam bump is now enclosed in aluminum
• Color and end choices are nonetheless restricted

For 12 years, the seventh-generation iPod nano remained Apple’s thinnest product ever. Now, that groundbreaking gadget has been usurped by the 13-inch iPad Professional M4, which is simply 5.1mm thick. Even the thicker 11-inch variant measures solely 5.3mm. Opposite to widespread perception, the iPad Professional actually did must be thinner. 

Utilizing the previous few generations of iPad Professional, thickness wasn’t a difficulty whereas utilizing the pill by itself. The second an iPad Professional is paired with a keyboard case or a folio cowl, although, it turns into an unwieldy gadget.

The thinner chassis makes an actual distinction, and so does the lighter construct. The 13-inch iPad Professional M4 weighs simply 579 grams, which is almost a 100-gram lower from the 682-gram 12.9-inch iPad Professional M2.

For comparability, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Extremely is 5.4mm thick and 718g.

Brady Snyder / Foundry

The glass digicam overlaying is eliminated, enabling the iPad Professional’s sloping, unibody aluminoum design. It seems to be premium however is extra practical now that the pointless digicam bump glass is eliminated. The digicam bump itself is smaller, too, and meaning the iPad Professional M4 has much less wobble on a desk. 

Your expertise with the iPad Professional M4 as a conveyable gadget will largely depend upon whether or not you purchase the 11- or 13-inch mannequin. I examined the previous, and though it’s functionally an identical to the bigger model except for minor dimensions and display screen measurement modifications, it modified the best way I used it.

In comparison with my 12.9-inch iPad Professional from 2018, the smaller iPad was simpler to make use of in my lap, within the automobile, and wherever, actually. 

The show bezel continues to be the right measurement in your fingers to comfortably grip with out obstructing its viewable space. Lastly, the Face ID and front-facing digicam sensors are positioned to be used in panorama mode. Since most iPad Professional customers work with keyboard circumstances or folio stands, that is very best for video calls and the like. 

I are inclined to want the implementation of Contact ID on the iPad mini to Face ID on the iPad Professional, however I’m within the minority right here.

For most individuals, this technique might be very best for fundamental unlocking, authorizing purchases with Apple Pay, and accessing locked or hidden apps. Sadly, the horizontally-positioned cameras and sensors pose a compatibility difficulty for Apple Pencil, which we’ll get to later.

Brady Snyder / Foundry

On the again, the Sensible Connector facilitates reference to keyboards. There’s a wi-fi charging pad on the aspect for the Apple Pencil Professional and a USB/Thunderbolt 4 port on the underside.

Display screen & Audio system

• Lastly, an iPad Professional with OLED
• Tandem-OLED makes for brighter and higher colors
• Quad-firing audio system sound nice for a pill

Apple has a fame for ready till expertise is mature earlier than introducing it, and that’s precisely what it did with the iPad Professional M4. It seems that Mini-LED on previous iPad Professional fashions have been only a stopgap earlier than tandem OLED, the expertise throughout the iPad Professional M4, was prepared.

No, Apple didn’t invent tandem OLED – there have been many merchandise with the tech launched earlier than and after the iPad Professional M4. Nonetheless, it did make it mainstream with this iPad mannequin.

In easy phrases, a tandem OLED show stacks two conventional OLED panels, permitting for greater brightness ranges with out the lack of pixel density or color accuracy. It additionally minimizes the danger of OLED burn-in and is extra environment friendly than a single, high-power OLED panel. 

Brady Snyder / Foundry

The Mini-LED display screen within the iPad Professional M2 was implausible, but it surely couldn’t present true blacks and suffered from blooming results underneath sure circumstances.

The tandem-OLED display screen within the iPad Professional M4 is just on one other stage. It’s the most effective iPad show ever, eliminating the pitfalls of the last-gen Mini-LED panel whereas offering DCI-P3 color help and a two-million-to-one distinction ratio. 

Brightness is often a compromise that comes with tablet-sized OLED panels, however not on the iPad Professional. You get 1,000 nits full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits peak brightness whereas watching XDR content material. Whether or not you’re typing up an e-mail or watching a Paramount+ authentic, this show is gorgeous. 

The audio system and microphones are nonetheless a key perk of shopping for an iPad Professional over a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Brady Snyder / Foundry

The iPad Professional M4 has a quad-speaker array that sounds implausible, so long as expectations are stored affordable.

Movies and reveals sound unimaginable too, however don’t anticipate tons of bass whereas listening to music. Apple calls the iPad Professional’s 4 microphones “studio-quality,” identical to those on the iPhone 16 Professional and MacBook Professional. 

Equipment

• The brand new Magic Keyboard is fantastic
• There’s an Apple Pencil Professional, too
• You possibly can’t use a second-gen Apple Pencil

Apple didn’t simply overhaul the iPad Professional M4 this yr; it additionally launched a brand-new stylus and keyboard to pair with it: the brand new Magic Keyboard (£300-350) and Apple Pencil Professional (£129). 

Brady Snyder / Foundry

As somebody who discovered the unique Magic Keyboard to be underwhelming, I’m impressed with the refreshed mannequin.

It lastly features a operate row, which was an enormous oversight of the unique. The floating, top-heavy design of the Magic Keyboard continues to be right here. Nonetheless, with the iPad Professional M4 lighter and the Magic Keyboard’s weight shifted, it’s a lot simpler to make use of this model in your lap. 

Moreover, the palm rests at the moment are made from aluminium and the trackpad is glass, supporting haptic suggestions. That is the Magic Keyboard that Apple ought to’ve made within the first place, and it now appears like a premium accent that may command a excessive price ticket. 

Brady Snyder / Foundry

With the introduction of the Apple Pencil Professional, the corporate now sells 4 Apple Pencils that work with numerous iPad fashions.

It’s a convoluted expertise for patrons, and sadly, iPad Professional M4 customers can’t use the second-gen Apple Pencil they may have already got with their new gadget. The panorama front-facing digicam seemingly pressured Apple to alter the place of the magnets and chargers, making that Apple Pencil incompatible. 

Apple Pencil Professional is like all the opposite Apple Pencils, however with extra options. You get traditional instruments like double faucet and hover, plus extras like squeeze and barrel roll.

This mannequin additionally has Discover My help, so it’s simpler to find if it will get misplaced. In all, Apple Pencil Professional and iPad Professional are seemingly the most effective stylus/pill combo for artists not made by Wacom.

Efficiency & Software program

• M4 is ridiculously highly effective
• Loads of pro-level artistic apps accessible
• iPadOS might nonetheless be higher for multitasking and productiveness

The iPad Professional M4 is now the third iPad Professional to sport a desktop-class chip. By now, there are diminishing returns.

Sure, the M4 chip is quicker than M2, which was sooner than M1 – go determine. In each day use, although, it’s unlikely that you’ll discover a pace distinction between an iPad Professional M4 or M2.

Greater than ever, the facility of the iPad Professional you purchase will depend upon how a lot storage you choose. iPad Professional M4 fashions with both 256- or 512GB of storage could have an M4 chip with a 9-core CPU and 10-core GPU. You get a 16-core Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence and 8GB of RAM, too.

Improve to the 1- or 2TB variations, and the M4 chip within the iPad Professional could have a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, and 16GB RAM. It’s a dear improve that might make an iPad Professional M4 price as a lot as £600/$600 extra.

Brady Snyder / Foundry

The pace increase does result in elevated efficiency. In three Geekbench 6 benchmark trials, the iPad Professional M4 averaged a 3,764 single-core rating and a 13,344 multi-core rating. For reference, iPad Professional fashions with an M2 chip typically file multi-core scores underneath 10,000 factors in Geekbench 6.

The query is just not whether or not the iPad Professional M4 is quicker – it completely is. It’s whether or not you’ll see that efficiency or not whereas utilizing the pill.

In all my time with the iPad Professional M4, I by no means felt it decelerate. There have been software program bugs right here and there, and the iPad obtained scorching to the contact underneath excessive workloads, like picture and video modifying. Moreover, there have been a couple of occasions when the iPad Professional’s display screen brightness would drastically lower as a consequence of overheating.

With all that being stated, I by no means noticed the iPad Professional M4 grasp up or decelerate as a consequence of an absence of energy. 

Brady Snyder / Foundry

That could possibly be considered as or dangerous factor, relying on the way you take a look at it. The good information is that if you happen to purchase an iPad Professional M4 you’ll be getting a blazing-fast machine. The issue is that you just’ll all the time be questioning if there’s energy inside your gadget simply ready to be unlocked.

Outdoors of some artistic apps, corresponding to Photoshop, Lightroom, Remaining Lower Professional, and Logic Professional, there aren’t many packages that maximize the M4’s full potential. 

The iPad Professional M4, and iPadOS 18, is implausible for artists, creators, and college students. You may get through the use of the iPad as your solely laptop if you happen to depend on artistic software program and net apps completely.

Nonetheless, iPadOS may be irritating. Stage Supervisor is an honest technique to multitask on a touch-first working system, but it surely has been just about unchanged because it debuted in iPadOS 16. On the whole, iPadOS 18 is a lacklustre replace that appears like a missed alternative to let folks unlock their iPad Professional M4’s capabilities.

Battery Life & Charging

• 10 hours of battery life
• Gradual charging speeds
• Wonderful real-world battery efficiency

The iPad has lengthy touted 10 hours of battery life whereas net searching, and the iPad Professional M4 is not any exception.

Each sizes are marketed as lasting 10 hours throughout video playback or net searching. In a real-world take a look at streaming YouTube with the show at 50% brightness for one hour, my iPad Professional M4’s battery life dropped precisely 10%.

Brady Snyder / Foundry

That’s proper in keeping with Apple’s claims and matches my stellar expertise with battery life over months of use. Impressively, the mobile mannequin nonetheless helps 9 hours of battery life, regardless of mobile connectivity consuming considerably extra energy.

Sadly, the iPad Professional nonetheless costs very slowly. It’s restricted to between 20W and 30W wired charging speeds, numbers that the most effective OnePlus telephones put to disgrace.

Pricing & Availability

The iPad Professional M4 begins at $999 for the 11-inch mannequin and $1,299 for the 13-inch mannequin within the US. The bottom mannequin iPad Professional nets you 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, however you may pay further for as much as 2TB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

The Wi-Fi + Mobile mannequin prices an additional $200, and you’ll add nano-texture glass for $100 — however solely after bumping the storage to 1TB, making it a pricey improve.

Within the UK, pricing is £999 for the 11-inch mannequin and £1,299 for the 13-inch variant. The pricing tiers for UK and US clients are an identical for the iPad Professional M4.

The Wi-Fi + Mobile improve is £200, and the most cost effective iPad Professional with nano-texture glass is £1,699. For an extra payment, you may improve the iPad Professional M4 as much as 2TB storage and 16GB RAM.

UK consumers should buy the iPad Professional M4 from Apple and Amazon. Within the US, the iPad Professional M4 may be discovered at Apple, Finest Purchase, Amazon, and different retailers.

Take a look at our chart of the most effective tablets to see extra choices.

Do you have to purchase the iPad Professional M4?

The iPad Professional M4 has grow to be a vital a part of my cell workflow as a consequence of its mobile connectivity, quick efficiency, and long-lasting battery life.

Different perks embrace intensive help for artistic apps and a desktop-class net browser. For some folks, the iPad Professional can completely be a laptop computer different. 

Sadly, you’ll pay a premium for that luxurious. An iPad Professional M4 with 512GB storage, mobile help, and equipment can simply exceed £2,000/$2,000. It’s a troublesome promote for a pill that, in some ways, continues to be much less versatile than a similarly-priced MacBook or 2-in-1 laptop computer. 

Regardless of the contemporary chassis, new chipset, and revamped equipment, there’s little purpose for house owners of an iPad Professional M1 or M2 to lay our a fortune upgrading to the M4 model.

Nonetheless, if you happen to’re shopping for an iPad Professional for the primary time or are coming from an older mannequin, the M4 model might be a candy improve.

Specs

• M4 chipset
• 8/16GB RAM
• 256GB-2TB storage
• Tandem-OLED Extremely Retina XDR show
• 120Hz ProMotion
• 12MP huge digicam (rear)
• 12MP ultrawide digicam (entrance)
• USB/Thunderbolt 4 Sort-C
• Wi-Fi 6E, 5G (optionally available)
• 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3 mm (11-inch); 281.6 x 215.5 x 5.1mm (13-inch)
• 444g (11-inch, Wi-Fi); 446g (11-inch, Mobile); 579g (13-inch, Wi-Fi), 582g (13-inch, Mobile)